Bumblefoot to play with POV in India in June

GN’R guitarist to rock it
ARINDAM CHATTERJEE

Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal is set to rock Calcutta on June 15, headlining The Festival Chapter III concert at Nazrul Mancha.

He is going to play a special set with Dubai-based melodic hard rock band Point of View (POV), which has Chiradeep Lahiri on the drums. Having toured the country last December with the iconic American band, “India’s starting to feel like home” for Ron.

“This will be my first in Calcutta… I look forward to seeing everyone very soon,” says the guitarist who joined GNR in 2006.

Lahiri, the former Krosswindz drummer, left Calcutta for Dubai in 2009. POV performed alongside Ron for the launch of its album Revolutionize the Revolutionary last year.

“It was an overwhelming experience… just his presence was enough. I’m excited and looking forward to performing in my hometown,” he says.

Big foreign acts have been giving the city a miss because of lack of support from sponsors and the administration, says Kinjal Bhattacharya, managing head of E365 Media Solutions, the event producer.

“We tried to break the jinx with the Poets of the Fall gig at Nazrul Mancha in August 2012. This time we have Point of View and two others,” he adds.

Tickets are available at www.indianstage.in.

Bumblefoot rocks on despite low turnout
Arun Daniel Yellamaty | June 12, 2013 | 0 Comments

Tuesday night’s gig which featured Point of View and the very popular Guns N’ Roses guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal at the Hard Rock Cafe was a night to be remembered. The turnout could have been better, but people who turned up got more than their money’s worth. Those who missed it surely did miss one of Ron’s great performances. Point of View, the band which started off the show by singing songs from their album kept the fans busy till Ron walked on to the stage. From then on, it was his show completely.

Ron awed the crowd with his guitar riffs and kept them glued to the stage. At the end of the concert, they decided to do a few GNR staples like Sweet Child Of Mine, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door and even played Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven on acoustic guitar after a special request. Overall, the concert was amazing, but the turnout could have been better. People who missed out really missed something very special.

Postnoon caught up with Bumblefoot and Nikhil Uzgare (Point of View’s lead vocalist and frontman), who is visiting the City for the first time. All the band members mentioned that they’ve been enjoying eating biryani.

Talking about the visit, Nikhil said, “We are all from India and wanted to play here. We wanted our songs and new album Revolutionize the Revol­ution to be heard and of course sold here, which is the reason for the Indian tour.”

Ron has been helping the band and touring with them. Point of View has won quite a few titles, including best Dubai band and is known as a band that writes songs with a message. Nikhil, added, “We are humbled to have Ron around, He is a very humble person, we get to learn a lot of things from him, He doesn’t carry on that he is from GNR and is very approachable, which makes us humble too.”

“I exhort all the young bands to stay united and help bands to come up in this Bollywood generation.”

Apart from being in GNR, Bumblefoot is also a solo artiste and producer. He has released nine studio albums so far, starting with 1995’s debut release The Adventures of Bumblefoot.

Talking to Ron about his association and opportunity to play for GNR, he said, “It was over eight years ago that GNR reached out (to me). At the time, I was releasing my own albums, touring, producing great bands, a guest guitarist with cool artistes, licensing music to TV shows and videogames, teaching music production at a university… my life was complete and gratifying and the thought of putting all this aside to join another band… I told them no. A year-and-a-half later, I said okay. We jammed seven times, after which we toured and played to a few hundreds and fifty thousand people. Later I learned all the unreleased Chinese Democracy songs by listening on a laptop for half an hour with pen and paper in hand, and hit the road. Now we are a great family.”

Speaking about influences, Ron said, “When I was five years old, I heard KISS and said that is what I want to do. My major influences were surely KISS, The Beatles, AC/DC, Queen, and many more.”

Explaining how the name ‘Bumblefoot’ came about, Ron said, “The nickname was my band name, releasing ’Bumblefoot’ music for the last 15 years. Before the band, it was the name of my first album The Adventures of Bumblefoot on Shrapnel Records in the mid-90s. That album title came from a song called Bumblefoot that was on a guitar comp CD in the early 90s and became the title track of the album. I wrote the song when I was helping my girlfriend study. She was in veterinary school, and bumblefoot, aka ulcerative pododermatitis, was one of the animal diseases she was learning about. I said ‘what a stupid name’, but later it became my name. I got used to it.”

Ron added he was planning a bigger project in future in which he can help and support upcoming bands. Ron also said he wants to use this platform of music to fulfil a bigger purpose.

Tips from the great Bum­blefoot: “From a business point of view, they need to study hard about music and should learn how to write, produce and do as many things as they can do. They have to have a diverse portfolio.”

When Bumblefoot came to town

How often does a celebrity guitarist offer to launch your debut album and perform at a gig with you? Chances are never. But not when the band is Point of View (POV) and the guitarist is Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal of Guns N Roses. What started as a casual Facebook acquaintance soon turned into a lasting friendship and association with Bumblefoot for the Dubai-based POV. Today, less than a year after releasing their album, the band is on a five-city tour of India accompanied by the celebrity guitarist.

The mainly Indian band, which performed at the Hard Rock Café on Tuesday night is excited about their maiden tour in their home country. And the fact that they are accompanied by Bumblefoot only makes the whole experience better. So how did they meet Bumblefoot? “I’d attended a GNR concert in Abu Dhabi and messaged Bumblefoot on Facebook saying I loved his concert. Like it goes with most celebrities, I never expected a reply from him. But he did. In fact, he makes it a point to reply to every email or message sent to him, by no matter who.

That is how we got chatting and one day he asked me what I do. I mentioned that I was a musician too and that Point of View was working on an album. Though hesitant, I shared a couple of our mixes with him and he loved it,” says the lead vocalist Nikhil Uzgare or Nik as he is known.

One thing led to another and soon Bumblefoot agreed to launch their album in October 2012 and even played all the 11 tracks with them at the launch. Quiz the GNR musician about why he chose to associate with POV and he says, “Sometimes you just have to trust your gut. It was a great sounding album and we were in touch for quite some time before I decided to work with them. I had faith in them and we had become great friends as well. Besides, it is not just about the music these days. It is also about the people making the music. The music is an extension of them. These are great people making great music.”

The five-piece ensemble band which comprises of Nik, Chiro, Royden, Joe and Fabian, received a great response to their album and has also won several awards for their work. However, what sets this band apart from most others is the fact that they feel very strongly about charity and donate most of the proceeds from their gigs towards animal welfare.

The band, which has worked with animal welfare groups in Dubai in the past, is currently in talks with a few such charities in India to tie up with them.

Even the band’s songs are message oriented and speak strongly about issues like corruption. With most of the band members being Indians, there is a lot of excitement about performing in their country.

“We are very excited about sharing our music with more people. Since most of our music is in digital versions and in CDs, this is a great way to connect with a live audience. Besides, since ours is music with a message there can be no better way to spread that message,” says the lead guitarist Royden. On the whole though, Chiro, the drummer, says they are looking to have a blast and soon begin work on their second album for which they hope to rope in Bumblefoot for a couple of tracks.

POV captures hearts

That their gig was a huge success would be an overstatement. Simply because there was a poor turn out at the show. However, the few who did make it to the concert thoroughly enjoyed the two hour session and were seen enthusiastically head banging and singing along with the Dubai-based band and Bumblefoot. The band put up a good show with a few songs from their debut album like ‘Revolutionize’, ‘Déjà vu’ and ‘Living On The Edge’. Bumblefoot too performed a few of his solos like before they played some GNR hits like ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Doors’. They even sportingly played a Led Zepplin song on the insistence of the audience. Needless to say it was an evening of good rock music that even little children enthusiastically danced and head banged to.